2000 Billings Land Reclamation Symposium THE ECOLOGICAL BASIS FOR RECLAMATION SUCCESS CRITERIA

Reclamation success criteria were incorporated into federal and state coal strip mining laws or regulations of the 1970's. Other surface disturbing agencies, following the lead of the Office of Surface Mining, have attempted to develop similar reclamation success criteria. State hardrock mining and sand and gravel regulatory agencies, highway departments, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Environmental Protection Agency have attempted to clarify what they consider successful reclamation efforts. Final determination of reclamation success for these groups has always been based on the appearance and production of vegetation but plants are very opportunistic and resilient. They mask deficiencies of reclamation for years but will eventually fail if the soil resource is not rehabilitated sufficiently to insure the perpetuation of the plants. That is the reclaimed plant community must be enhancing the soil, it must be increasing the quality and quantity of the resource in which it is growing or natural loss of the soil will eventually contribute to the destruction of vegetation on the reclaimed site. It seems reasonable, therefore, that the soil resource is the criteria that should be evaluated for final bond release rather than the vegetation covering the soil